Stoneridge Shopping Center Robbery: Teen Arrested, Police Say

PLEASANTON, CA — A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with an armed robbery at the Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton in December, police officials said. Police credit an alert citizen with information that led investigators to the arrest.

“An observant citizen noticed a green Honda Civic parked at Stoneridge Shopping Center just prior to robbery,” police said in a statement. “The citizen believed the vehicle was suspicious and wrote down the license plate.”

According to police, a license plate check revealed the car had been stolen out of the Concord BART station parking lot and was recently recovered by police in Pittsburg following a pursuit. Police said the suspect they arrested was in possession of a black handgun.

Police said two suspects approached the victim who was getting into her car after leaving the mall on December 20, 2016.

“One of the suspects pulled open the driver’s door, pointed a black handgun at the victim and demanded her property,” police said in a statement.

The second suspect acted as a lookout, police said. The pair fled in a green Honda Civic or similar sedan.
The victim positively identified the suspect, police said. Investigators arrested the teen after he appeared in court for the Pittsburg pursuit. The suspect has been booked into the Alameda County Juvenile Hall.

Previous:

• Woman Robbed at Gunpoint in Stoneridge Shopping Center Parking Lot, Police Say

The robbery is just one of many violent robberies reported at Stoneridge in 2016. In June of 2016, police said two unidentified teens allegedly pepper-sprayed and robbed a patron at the mall. Three teens arrested in February admitted to their involvement with a rash of parking lot robberies at the mall. During those incidents, a teen from Danville was approached by the suspects, and when the girl tried to walk away, one of the suspects allegedly struck the girl in the face, pushed her to the ground and grabbed her purse, according to police.

The next day, the suspects grabbed a 63-year-old woman’s purse while another brandished a firearm, possibly a shotgun or rifle, police said. The woman fell to the ground as she struggled to hold on to her purse. One of the suspects then kicked the woman in the back before they fled, according to police. In March of 2015, a father foiled a carjacking at the mall and was robbed by two shotgun-wielding suspects.

Photo courtesy Renee Schiavone